


Push And Pull

by decadent_mousse



Series: We Don't Skip A Beat [6]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Heartbeat Kink, Kissing, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-12
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-02-04 08:24:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1772314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann and Newt discover an interesting side effect of their drift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Push And Pull

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is kind of indirectly related to [Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1749281). I'm probably going to put them (and some other similar fics) into a series at some point! ...Once I think of a name for said series. XD
> 
> Many thanks to [bravinto](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bravinto/), for letting me bounce ideas off her lovely head. :* And also many, many thanks to all my other friends who have been ~~enabling~~ encouraging my writing of heartbeat kink fic.  <3 <3

“This sucks,” Newton sighed, staring at the ceiling.

Hermann was also staring upward. “I’m not especially fond of it, either.”

“I feel okay, you feel okay, we both feel okay – we _are_ okay… The only thing I’m in danger of dying of is _boredom_ , man. They’ve kept us here for like three hours. It’s crap.”

“It’s only been an hour and a half, Newton.”

“…Oh.”

Hermann rolled his eyes, then closed them, and by some miracle they both managed to lie there in relatively companionable silence for awhile before, inevitably, Newton finally broke it.

“Hey. Hey, Hermann.”

He opened his eyes and glanced at him with a sigh. “Yes, Newton?”

Newt propped himself up on his elbows and looked at the EKG machine at his bedside, then glanced over at Hermann’s. “Dude.”

“What is it?” Hermann asked, looking at the machine to see what the fuss was about, but everything seemed to be normal.

“You don’t hear anything weird?”

All he could hear was the steady beeping of a– wait. “Is one of the machines not working?”

“They’re both working, they’re just– _See_ , that’s what I’m talking about. Look.”

Hermann glanced between the two machines. Both of the readouts looked virtually identical. Also, upon closer inspection, both machines _were_ beeping, but they were beeping in time with one another, which made it sound more like one set of beeps instead of two.

“Well, that’s… strange,” Hermann muttered. “Isn’t it?”  


“Uh, _yeah_. Yeah. ‘Weird’ is what I would have said, but ‘strange’ works. Also ‘bizarre’ and ‘extremely unlikely.’ Do you know what the odds are of our hearts beating at the same exact rate at the same exact time are? Or the odds of our EKGs looking the same, for that matter?”

“Perhaps the equipment’s malfunctioning.”

“Huh. Maybe.”

“We should ask the next time they come to check– What on earth are you doing?!”

Newt had swung his legs off the side of the bed, grabbed ahold of the EKG machine, quickly looked over the various connections and wires, then proceeded to hop off the bed, carefully rolling the machine alongside him. The beeping intensified, and whether it was due to Newt excitedly tip-toeing towards him or Hermann’s own startled reaction, the changed pace of the beeping was perfectly reflected on _both_ machines.

Hermann sat up, wincing slightly as his stiff and aching hip protested at the sudden movement. “Newton–“

The other man opened his mouth to say something – perhaps to explain himself – but Hermann never heard whatever it was he had planned on saying, because Newton’s foot caught on one of the cords dangling from the machine and he half-stumbled, and several of the electrodes got pulled off his chest, and the EKG machine shrieked unhappily.

So did the medical staff that swarmed in two minutes later.

~

“You should sit down for awhile, dude. The apocalypse got cancelled, you don’t need to stand there working all day. Relax. Eat a snack or something.”

  
“I would, but _someone_ ate all the food I’d been keeping in the fridge.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“Yes, of course you don’t.”

Hermann kept working. It helped clear his head, and after the events of the past few days it was relaxing. Or at least, it was usually relaxing – as the minutes went by, however, Hermann found himself feeling more and more agitated, and he he had no idea why. That is, until he glanced over his shoulder and saw Newt glaring at his cell phone with increasing ire and – if the fluttering in Hermann’s chest was any indication – an increasing heart rate.

“Newton, what are you doing over there?”

“Playing Flappy Bird. Why?”

Hermann sighed. He loved Newton, but he wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. He sincerely hoped this strange post-drift synchronization wasn’t _permanent_.

~

That situation had been mildly annoying, but tolerable. What came the next day was far less so.

After his eventual lunch break, Hermann had sat at his computer for awhile going through some files, then had gotten the itch to work on more equations, so he’d walked back over to his chalkboard. He’d barely made his way through one equation, however, when his pulse began to race and he found himself leaning back against the chalkboard, trying to calm his fiercely pounding heart, breathing in slow and steadily. It wasn’t helping. If anything, it felt like it was getting worse, and he was beginning to wonder if either he or Newton were having a heart attack.

Then Newt came practically _exploding_ into the lab in a flurry of motion, panting and sweating.

“Newton,” Hermann managed, “what in God’s name are you _doing_?”

The other man put his hands on his knees and opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out so he breathed heavily for a few moments before trying again. “Uh, I– I ran.”

“You ran,” Hermann puffed, sweat trickling down his brow, squinting incredulously.

“Yeah, from–” Newt stood of straight and wobbled slightly, chest still heaving, “–from my room to here, I ran. _Well_ ,” he wheezed, “from my room to the mess hall and then to here, because from my room straight to here didn’t really seem far enough to–“

Hermann glared. “ _Why_?”

“For science, dude,” Newton replied with a breathless grin.

If he had thought he could make it across the room in his current state, Hermann would have gone over there and strangled him. He settled for tossing a piece of chalk at his head, instead.

~

After that, Hermann decided he’d had _quite_ enough excitement for one day. He went to bed early – at eight pm – which was unusual for him, but as Newton had been quick to point out the day before, there was no longer any urgent need to get any work done. If he stopped to think about it for too long, he actually wasn’t entirely sure what to do with himself now that there was no apocalypse looming over their heads. Why shouldn’t he take advantage of his newfound free time?

He _was_ exhausted – and also dimly aware of Newt’s presence like a persistent, overactive _itch_ at the back of his mind. An idea occurred to him. He had no idea if it would actually work, but since most of what it entailed on his part was what he’d already been planning on doing, he supposed it couldn’t hurt to find out.

~

“Well, that explains it,” Newt huffed, door shutting heavily behind him and jostling Hermann awake.

“Explains what?” Hermann murmured sleepily, shooting Newt a drowsy glare before closing his eyes again.

Newton made an indignant noise that came out sounding more like a sigh. “I was moving some stuff around the lab, then all of a sudden I start feeling really drowsy. So I sat down for a second.”

“Hmm.”

“And I checked my pulse and it was like… _fifty-five_.”

“So?”

“So? Hermann, my heart doesn’t beat that slow, _ever_. Not when I’m awake, anyway. Actually, I don’t think it’s even that slow when I sleep, dude. So I was sitting there starting to feel like I was slipping into a coma or something… and I figured I’d come over so I could sleep it off for awhile and then I find _you_ sleeping. Kinda funny how that works, don’t you think?”

Hermann kept his expression carefully neutral and didn’t so much as bat an eye.

“You didn’t… do that to me on _purpose_ , did you?”

“Newton, I was tired, so I decided to retire early. I can hardly be held responsible if your own exhaustion finally caught up to you.”

“Uh huh.”

Hermann’s lips twitched.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Hermann heard a sort of shuffling sound and cracked open an eye to see Newton unlacing his boots and kicking them off before moving on to his impossibly tight pants. “Okay, I’m coming in.” He moved on to his shirt and tie. “Y’know, since _obviously_ I’m not going to be able to get anything else done today.”

As far as revenges went, it didn’t quite rank up there with “nearly giving your lab partner a heart attack,” and Newton probably needed the extra rest, anyway. God knew he probably wouldn’t have chosen to rest when left to his own devices.

“Pretty diabolical, y’know,” Newt yawned as he crawled into bed beside Hermann.

“Yes, well, I try.”

~

He woke up a solid eight hours later to the slightly muffled sound of Newton snoring. Every once in awhile the biologist would emit a much louder noise that, if Hermann had to guess, probably had something to do with the fact that he presently had his nose smushed awkwardly against Hermann’s shoulder.

Hermann smiled and planted a gentle kiss on Newt’s forehead. The other man made an indistinguishable noise, but didn’t wake up. Hermann shifted slightly and leaned in close, lips brushing across Newton’s neck.

 _That_ got a reaction. “Mmm. What’re you doing?” Newt croaked sleepily.

“Conducting an experiment of my own,” he replied, lightly dragging his mouth slowly down the other man’s neck and kissed the spot where Newton’s pulse was fluttering with increasing intensity right alongside Hermann’s.

“What kind of–“

He let a hand wander downward, dipping below the waistband of Newton’s boxers. It earned him a startled and slightly more alert “oh!” and his heart suddenly hammered hard in his chest.

“Dude, that’s– that was–” Newt breathed in shakily and tried again, “Was that you or me?”

“I think it was both of us.”

“Well, sure, technically, but I mean–“

Hermann lifted his face from the other man’s neck and said, “Newton, stop talking.”

Newton grinned at him, still sleepily but somewhat more alert than he had been before Hermann had slid his hand inside his underwear. “Geez, you’re bossy. C’mere.”

The kiss Hermann was pulled into was sloppy but not unpleasant. Newton’s fingers brushed across the sensitive skin of his neck and lingered there.

“What are you–“

 “ _Shh_ , dude, I’m trying to concentrate. Gotta preserve the integrity of the experiment right?” That would have sounded a bit more legitimate of Newton hadn’t sounded as though he was still far more asleep than awake.

Hermann swallowed.

Newt grinned against his mouth. “Pretty rapid pulse you’ve got there, Dr. Gottlieb. Maybe you should get some rest.”

“Need I remind you, that it’s just as likely that that’s _your_ influence, not mine. I hardly get that excited from a bit of light kissing.”

The biologist pulled back slightly and repeated, sounding mildly offended. “’Light kissing?’ Also, you’re so full of it - yesterday I was sitting on the couch eating lunch and I started having heart palpitations out of nowhere and you know what _you_ were doing? You were across the room, working on an equation. You were having heart palpitations over _math_ , dude.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah, sure. Okay. What were you thinking about then?”

Hermann gave Newton a light shove, rolling him onto his back with little resistance and shifted slightly to lean over him, kissing him again.

Newt broke the kiss, panting slightly, “Don’t think you can just change the–“

He kissed him again.

“-subject.”

Hermann laid his head on Newton’s chest and let one of his hands wander downward again, running his fingertips across Newt’s hip.

“Okay, so– so maybe you can change the subject.”

He smirked and continued on, bypassing the main attraction entirely and lightly stroking the soft flesh of Newt’s inner thigh. His heart pounded hard beneath Hermann’s ear, and Hermann’s was hammering along with it.

Newton sucked in a ragged breath. “R-rude.”

“It wouldn’t be a very good experiment if I didn’t test your limits.”

“Oh, you’re testing my limits alright,” Newt grumbled. “Does that mean you’re just going to leave me hanging?”

Hermann turned his head and kissed a path along a swirl of color on Newton’s chest. Pressed together as closely as they were, he wasn’t entirely sure whether it was Newt’s heartbeat or his own he felt thumping against his lips. “Hmm,” he breathed. “I haven’t decided yet.”

~

As it turned out, it wasn’t permanent. By the end of the week, their hearts had resumed beating at their own distinctive paces, and though it was probably for the best in the long run, Hermann couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of disappoint. It had been an… _interesting_ experience, to say the least.

“You know,” Newton said, one blessedly lazy morning a couple weeks later. “We could always drift again.”

“We have no real reason to,” Hermann replied, eyes never leaving the book he was reading.

Newton leaned in and kissed the edge of Hermann’s ear. “I dunno, man,” he whispered. “I can think of a couple reasons.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if Flappy Bird would actually still exist in the year 2025, I just was trying to think of the most aggravating game I could think of, and that's what sprang to mind. That game makes me want to throw my tablet across the room.


End file.
